John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

In August 2019, the Virginia Real Estate Board filed a lawsuit against realtor Hadassah Carter for violating Fair Housing laws by using discriminatory religious speech on her website. How did she discriminate?

Hadassah Carter posted John 3:16 on her website and used the phrases “Faith and freedom,” “Jesus loves you”, and “With God, all things are possible” in her email signatures. She also added these words (among others): “I am dedicated to making the dreams of families come true across the State of Virginia, and those relocating around the World. I am dedicated with true devotion to serving GOD and helping people.”

To the Rescue: Recently, the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) won a lawsuit for Carter, charging Virginia’s Board with violating her First Amendment rights by “attacking free speech and religious liberty.”

But this is really an attack on John 3:16. When I ask audiences for their favorite Bible verse, it is John 3:16. It is American Christianity’s #1 verse. Our culture wants to remove John 3:16 from public discourse.

To understand John 3:16, we start by understanding why Jesus begins it with the word “For.” Jesus is tying John 3:16 to an Old Testament desert event known as the “Bronze Serpent” found in Numbers 21:4-9.

Numbers 21:4-5 records Israel’s rebellion against God: “The soul of the people became very discouraged and spoke against Moses: ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no food and no water and our soul loathes this worthless bread.’” In Numbers 21:6, God judges their sin: “The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people. Many of the people died.” This is Romans 6:23a (“the wages of sin is death”). Americans have forgotten what it means to be sinful – to be “bad.” CS Lewis said it best: “No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.”

One verse later, in Numbers 21:7, they beg Moses to intercede to God for them: “They came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned. We have spoken against the Lord and you. Pray to the Lord that He take away the serpent from us.’ So, Moses prayed for the people.” Moses intercedes for their sins – sound familiar? “He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). “He saves to the uttermost those coming to God through Him, since He ever lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

Here is our first reference to Jesus Christ as we investigate just the first word – “For” – in John 3:16. Moses is a picture of Jesus as our INTERCESSOR to God the Father for repentant sinners seeking forgiveness.

Then, Numbers 21:8a explains how those bitten by serpents can live: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole.” God told Moses to lift up the bronze serpent on a pole. Jesus, speaking to Nicodemus 1,400 years later in John 3:14, uses this event to explain who He is: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” Jesus makes this claim often in His ministry: “When you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that I am He…” (John 8:28); “If I am lifted up, I will draw all people to Myself.” (John 12:32). Here is our second reference to Jesus Christ in Numbers 21 – the lifted up bronze serpent who is God the Father’s future, promised SIN PAYMENT.

Finally, Numbers 21:8b-9 is our third reference to Jesus Christ – God’s provided SAVIOR: “’It shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.’ So, Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. And so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”

Only those bitten by a serpent needed to look at the bronze serpent. And only those bitten by a serpent had would die. God was providing a solution – the free gift of life – to those who had sinned against Him.

This is a direct explanation of Romans 6:23, part b (“the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”). It is through the sacrificial death of Christ that God is satisfied that our sin has been paid for. This is exactly what Peter meant in Acts 4:12 as he spoke to the Sanhedrin: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Jesus, the pictured bronze serpent in Numbers 21, is God’s ONLY provision for defeating death and restoring life.

This is why America’s Anti-Christian culture is going after John 3:16. This verse is American Christianity’s battle cry for the gospel. Our secular culture will do all it can to minimize the gospel and Jesus Christ.
“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance” _ Article #590